{"id":24111,"date":"2004-11-26T12:03:38","date_gmt":"2004-11-26T11:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/?p=24111"},"modified":"2022-03-07T14:53:46","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T13:53:46","slug":"room-work-wv-310","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/room-work-wv-310\/","title":{"rendered":"Room Work (WV 310)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Room Work (WV 310)<\/h2>
<\/div>
ERNST HERMANNS<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/div>

26.11.2004 \u2013 20.02.2005<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Online_E.H.<\/div>
Ernst Hermanns, Exhibition view Gallery DKM<\/div>
Photo: Werner J. Hannappel <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>
<\/div><\/div>

I AM SEARCHING FOR A NEW ORDER STRUCTURE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout his artistic career, Ernst Hermanns relied on the visual impact of what he created. <\/span>As a result, his output became more and more condensed. The last few years of his life saw <\/span>his material vocabulary of forms reduced to simple, stereometric volumes consisting of <\/span>spheres, columns, rods and – in rare cases – discs. All of them were made of stainless steel. <\/span>Consequently, their sizes and, above all, their positions relative to one another became <\/span>increasingly significant. Though always conceived in advance of an exhibition, they were <\/span>tested at the venue beforehand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hermanns executed a large number of works that brought this \u00abgame\u00bb of dimension, <\/span>proportion, and relation to bear on plates. Thus, the playing field was marked out, as it were, <\/span>by a base plate. Every element on this plate acted relative to another and in relation to the <\/span>plate itself. In a certain way, the plates also give this group of works a model-like quality.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are only a limited number of works that show Hermanns realizing a connection <\/span>between objects in real spaces. This \u00abgroup\u00bb of works begins with a hemisphere and a calotte <\/span>(1969\/84), which, strictly speaking, cannot be tied to a group of works. Two round rods lying <\/span>on the floor at an intriguingly minimal distance from one another (1979) would be a part of <\/span>
that group, as would his contribution to Skulptur Projekte M\u00fcnster (1987), his exhibitions in <\/span>the galleries Heinz Herzer, Munich, (1988) and Reckermann, Cologne, (1988), and without <\/span>question his <\/span>D\u00fcsseldorfer Raum<\/span> (D\u00fcsseldorf Space) from 1994.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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Until shortly before his death in 2000, the then almost 86-year-old worked on an \u00aborder structure\u00bb consisting of a huge sphere, a small column and a large column for the exhibition<\/span>space at Foundation DKM in Duisburg. He had never seen the room himself, but knew its <\/span>dimensions very well. Though he was intrigued by the fact that the space also operates like a <\/span>
shop window, it also irked him. After all, the sense of limitedness that characterizes his plate <\/span>works and <\/span>D\u00fcsseldorfer Raum<\/span> is no longer present here. By contrast, Duisburg features an <\/span>interior space bound by height, width, and depth, and an open exterior space. Both flow into <\/span>one another, separated only by panes of glass; both, visually connected by glazing, also form <\/span>a unity – but one that refuses to be dominated, thanks to the boundlessness of the exterior <\/span>space.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result of Hermann\u2019s preoccupation with this interior is a model and a sketch with dimensions. The model shows how he approached this subject, which was new to him, how <\/span>he wanted to take this special circumstance into account, how he evaluated this coexistence of <\/span>inside and outside… It shows that he approached the challenge spatially, as he usually did, but <\/span>that he also valued the visual aspect of his constellations with stereometric volumes, which <\/span>piqued his curiosity in D\u00fcsseldorf at the latest, and by that point were nearly his main interest. <\/span>After all, the sphere expodes, as it were, beyond the interior space; it hardly appears to be in <\/span>the space any more – especially when seen from the outside – but rather to dominate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The sphere is much more physically present inside the room than visible from beyond. Yet <\/span>seen from the outside, it remains figuratively present more than anything – then like a disk – <\/span>and only more so as a real sphere. Consequently, the small column disappears in the <\/span>background. But it is indispensably necessary for the visitor present in the space, as due to its <\/span>
clarity it inevitably invites them to engage in a visual dialogue between it and the sphere, a <\/span>dialogue that the sphere (with its power) no longer initiates. And then there is the large, <\/span>external column. It exceeds the height of the building – even if only slightly. It is taller than <\/span>the diameter of the sphere and thus positions itself in direct relation to it, yet it also <\/span>immediately seeks to set itself in relation to its \u00abkin\u00bb, the small column.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am searching for a new order structure.\u201d (fn.1) This sentence was Ernst Hermann\u2019s credo <\/span>until his death. The posthumously executed work for the space at the Foundation DKM in <\/span>Duisburg demonstrates this conspicuously. It shows that proportions of size and smallness, of <\/span>apparent power and powerlessness, can nevertheless lead to a separate whole. Every size is <\/span>significant within this balance. Mass is not a value-in-itself for dominance within these <\/span>relationships. Also – and strictly speaking one would have to say: even – the smallest element <\/span>in complex relations is constitutive of a balanced, functioning wholeness. Even if it is <\/span>speculation: Ernst Hermanns would call the Duisburg space<\/em> his work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Remagen Rolandseck, November 2004<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

Raimund Stecker<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Translation: Amy Patton<\/p>\n


____________<\/span>
fn.1<\/span>
Ernst Hermanns\u2019s 1962 quote is reprinted in the catalog<\/span> Ernst Hermanns<\/strong><\/em>, Ein Raum; <\/span>Kunstverein f\u00fcr die Rheinlande und Westfalen<\/span>, D\u00fcsseldorf, 1994, 65.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ERNST HERMANNS (DE)
\n26.11.2004 \u2013 20.02.2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,31,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exh-archive-gdkm","category-exhibition","category-pk-eh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24111"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33818,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24111\/revisions\/33818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumdkm.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}